Salt-rising Bread Needs Warm Utensils And Ingredients

January 26, 1989|By Pat Dailey.

Q-I`ve searched through many cookbooks for a recipe for salt-rising bread. Do you have one?

Dolly Long

Portage, Ind.

A-Before yeast was commercially available, breads were leavened with starters, often based on fermented potatoes or cornmeal. They also included a small amount of baking soda. Salt-rising refers to the old practice of keeping the starter warm by keeping it in a bowl of warm salt, which served as a good insulator.

Because the starter needs to ferment, salt-rising breads are known to be a bit temperamental. Sometimes they work beautifully and result in very finely textured and distinctive bread. Other times, they don`t rise properly, if at all.

These caveats aside, a recipe follows, adapted from ``The Complete Book of Breads`` by Bernard Clayton Jr. (Simon & Schuster, $24.95). He comments that salt-rising bread loves warmth and that anything used to make it should be warmed, including the bowls, spoons and measuring cups. Then, to get the starter on its way, find a very warm spot, free from drafts, where the starter can rest undisturbed. The ideal temperature for this is 90 to 95 degrees.

SALT-RISING BREAD

Preparation time: 35 minutes

Standing time: Overnight

Rising time: 3 hours

Baking time: 45 minutes

Yield: 2 loaves

Lard was most typically used in old recipes, though solid vegetable shortening can be used.

1/4 cup milk, scalding hot

2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons sugar

2 cups boiling water

1 teaspoon each: salt, baking soda

7-8 cups bread flour

1/3 cup shortening

1. The night before, pour the scalding milk over cornmeal and 1 teaspoon sugar. Stir together and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Put in a warm spot

(90 to 95 degrees) where it can remain for 8 to 10 hours. The surface will be bubbly and it will smell sweet and fermented. (If it hasn`t bubbled and doesn`t have a sweet smell, don`t continue with the recipe. Either wait a while longer to see if the starter develops or make a new starter.)

2. The next day, put salt, baking soda and remaining teaspoon sugar in a large bowl and pour the boiling water over. Stir briefly with a wooden spoon. Gradually add 2 1/2 cups flour to make a batter, then stir until smooth. The batter should be lukewarm to the touch (about 100 degrees), but no hotter. Stir in fermented cornmeal mixture.

3. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap, return it to the warm place until batter bubbles and foams to more than double its volume, about 2 hours. It will smell quite strong.

4. Mix in shortening or lard with a wooden spoon. Add remaining flour, 1/ 2 cup at a time, first mixing it with a spoon, then as it gets very thick, with your hands. Add enough flour so the dough is not wet and has formed a rough mass.

5. Turn dough onto a floured board and knead until it is soft and elastic, about 10 minutes. Cover with a towel and let rest for 10 minutes.

6. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a loaf and put in greased, 8 1/2- by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans. Brush top with melted butter.

7. Cover with wax paper and return to warm place until dough has doubled, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

8. Bake until loaves are nicely browned and sound hollow when rapped on the bottom, about 45 minutes. Turn loaves onto a wire rack.

Q-Many years ago, I bought a product called whipped cream stabilizer, made by Chefmaster. It is a white powder that when added to whipped cream, keeps the cream from separating. I`ve run out and can`t find it anywhere. Where can I buy this product?

Agnesrose Krasinski

South Holland, Ill.

A-Whip It, made by Oetker, is similar to the product you describe. A packet of the powder, added to cream before whipping, allows the whipped cream to be refrigerated for 3 to 4 days without separating. Two packets, each one enough for 1/2-pint of whipping cream, cost 45 cents at Treasure Island food stores.

Q-I recently bought a bunch of bananas that looked quite good-evenly yellow with no spots or bruises. However, when I peeled them, they were very mushy, had a deep yellow tinge and tasted bad. In all my years of eating bananas, I`ve never had this happen before. What was wrong with them?

Jack McGuire

Chicago

A-Rose Maria Romero of the International Banana Association suggested that the problem you describe was most likely caused by improper ripening of the bananas. Bananas are picked when they are still very green and shipped to their market destination at a temperature of 58 degrees. They are then held in ripening rooms where they are ripened with a mixture of temperature, humidity and ethylene gas. At this point, they are shipped to grocery stores, where they will finish the ripening process in a natural environment. If the bananas are mishandled at any one of these stages, they will not be of top quality. Such occurrences are very rare. -